Reviews, Recipes, Rants

Wood Fire Turkey Roulade

Turkey Roulade with Cornbread Stuffing and Apple Cider & Dark Beer Gravy*This is the best way to eat Turkey. You get the holidays all in one bite. The meat comes out perfect, and you’ll see here that I make mine with Cornbread stuffing and an Apple Cider gravy.

Ingredients:

Turkey Breast (boneless, butterflied – more on this below)

Butchers Twine

Onion (minced)

Garlic (minced)

Herbs (I use Sage, Rosemary, Oregano here but use whatever you have on hand)

Cornbread (2 cups, crumbled by hand)

Chicken Stock

White Wine (1/3 cup)

Pecans (1/3 cup or so)

Dried Cranberries (1/3 cup or so)

Salt

Pepper

For the gravy you will also need: onion, garlic, beer, apple cider, herbs, carrots, salt, pepper, and flour.

Cornbread Stuffing

Step 1: Toast Pecans over stove about 3 minutes or until fragrant, chop, and set aside

Step 6: Crumble cornbread into the mixture, then add pecans and dried cranberries, set aside, add enough chicken stock to make the dressing a little soggy but not super wet

Turkey Roulade

Step 1: Butterfly turkey breast
– You could ask the butcher to do this but its so simple. Cut horizontally at the thickest part of the breast, going slow to open it at the edges as you work. Basically you want as flat a piece of meat as you can.

Step 2: Tenderize the breast by placing plastic wrap over it and banging on the meat to thin it out, then roll it out (like dough) to get thin layer of turkey, salt and pepper both sides.

Step 3: Place the stuffing flat over the turkey breast, then roll it up tucking the stuffing edges in as you roll across

Step 4: Truss the turkey. This is a simple butcher’s knot then threading the twine under the meat. For a video on how this is done check this out: How to tie a roast with a string

Apple Cider & Dark Beer Gravy

So this is really simple, just put beer, cider, onion (cut in half), carrots, herbs, salt, pepper, and in a small pot

Prepare Your Fire

The key here is setting up a split system for direct and indirect heat. I use two grates that separate the cooking surface so I can put the coals on one half of the grilling surface. Important tip is to make sure the pot for the gravy fits in the indirect portion before starting the fire, just take it out once you start the coals, put the pot back in once you have white ambers ready to cook the turkey.

If your wondering what’s up with the paper towel arrangement in the top right picture, that’s how I start my cooks, it’s all explained here: How to Start Your Wood Fire Grill

The Cook

Step 1: Once coals are white and no flames are present put the pot with gravy on the indirect side, place turkey onto the direct heat.

Step 2: Brown each side of the turkey (4-6 minutes per side)

Step 3: Transfer to the indirect heat side, placing right above the gravy pot, so it can catch any drippings

Step 4: Close your grill (if you have this option), this will turn the grill into an oven and you will see nice even cooking. If you are on an open pit, you will likely need to give it direct heat for longer